Deals for the end of Jan 2010

Steam offers Tropico 3 at 60% off today.  Also, you might want to check out the Freedom Force bundle and X-Com bundle (careful on the compatibility though) at $2.  I recommend grabbing Freedom Force cause it's a great tactical RPG.  It's disappointing that the series didn't continue cause I remember that they were planning a game for each comic book era.


Impulse has an indie game sale.  They have Trine, Light of Altair, Gratuitious Space Battles and Starscape for sale.  I recommend Trine as something you should grab but Gratutious Space Battles is something strategy lovers should not miss.

Gamersgate has a bunch of 1c stuff for sale. Men at War gold is something I'd take a note at. Check out their offers page.

Direct2Drive has Red Faction: Guerrilla for $5 bucks this week.  Since it's available worldwide, I recommend you grab this if you want an open world shooter.

To Rule Hell!

I see hordes of demons bowing before me.  Virgin slaves doing my every bidding.  Gold and wealth flow through as I sit on my throne.  Glory and power awaits the new lord of hell.

Solium Infernum is a strategic board game where the goal is to be the ruler of hell.  I just got it last Sunday and got hooked.  I've played several matches against the AI - not much challenge once you get the hang of the rules and mechanics.  The real challenge though is taking the game to multiplayer against real deceiving and backstabbing humans wanting to claim the throne. 

The funny thing in hell is that things are pretty orderly.  Demons don't just go at each others throats every minute, they need a caucus belli to declare vendetta to attack another demon nation.  However, by being excommunicated by the Infernal Conclave (technically the government of hell who will vote at the end of the game who will be king), you can now go out and attack anyone and vice versa.  Oh yeah, Hell is also a doughnut shaped world as going north will eventually make you reach south and going west will make you reach east.  The flat map is basically wrap around which makes things a bit more confusing.

Multiplayer is a Play By Email (PBEM) where people would send turns to a host and the host would process the turn and return it to the players for the next turn.  Reminds me of the older PBEM game I'd play, Dragonlords where turns would take a week (and games normally last from 6 months to a year).

I'm playing my first multiplayer game now and my start doesn't look good.  There are 4 other lords vying for power and they're at better positions.  Even my infernal rank doesn't seem to give me an edge at this point.  I'm a prince of hell, the highest ranking demon (the others are all below me) and my bodyguard unit (the first unit you get) is pretty crappy.  My neighbors seem to have similar (or even stronger demons).  My base is locked between mountains and a river limiting my movement a lot.

Well hell is pretty chaotic and random, you can't get everything.  I'll update my blog after ten turns similar to what Rock, Paper, Shotgun did for their Solium Infernum battle report.

Sid Meier sale in Gamersgate

For those who aren't into real time strategy games like Company of Heroes, maybe you might be more interested in a more turn based strategy game like Civilization.  Check out the Sid Meier sale over at GamersGate.

Civ 3 and 4 and Civilizaton: Colonization are at 50% off.  These games make you build an empire following the course of time.

Two other games are Sid Meier's Pirates! and Railroads!.  I can vouch for Pirates! to be a good game.  If you know the casual game - Tradewinds - think of a game like that only better since Tradewinds was derived from that game.

Company of Heroes Sale

Company of Heroes (all games) is 75% off over at Steam!  That's about $13 for all three games (the original + 2 expansions).  I don't know whether it's intentional but the Eastern Front mod for CoH has also been released a day ago.  The Eastern Front mod basically adds 2 new factions in the game, the Soviet Union  (allies) and Ostheer (axis).

The Soviets is really the game changer.  They don't play like the other factions since they can't retreat, recrew or reinforce their squads.  However, the cost of their troops are so low who cares about reinforcing them back.  The mod will work on any version of CoH (CoH, Opposing Forces, Tales of Valor).

Dirt 2 Sale

Dirt 2 is Steam's game of the weekend.  At 50% off, for any rally racing fans, it is definitely a must have.

Zero Gear, the other racing game, is free for the weekend.  Try it if you like it though I won't recommend it.  I played a total of 10 minutes on this game and said, I'd rather play Mario Kart on an emulator.

Gamersgate has a AGEOD games sale.  These are those strategy games about the American Civil War and such.  I haven't tried any of those though they are quite expensive, half price is around $25 - a lot for me.

Impulse has sales on Company of Heroes Gold, AI War, Aztaka and Mr. Robot so check those out at this page.

Games to Film

The opposite is also true; films turning into games.  I read that there was going to be a fan made unofficial movie for Left 4 Dead.  They even have a website and trailer up and running.  That's quite interesting considering the game of Left 4 Dead is filled with movie cliches.  L4D gets a lot of it's setting from movies (like say Dead Rising grabs a lot from Dawn of the Dead).  It's the same with like the possibility of an Uncharted movie.  Uncharted takes a lot from Indiana Jones and a movie of Uncharted would seem like a rip loff - modern day Indiana Jones.

Films to games have usually never been something worth playing.  Conversely, games to films haven't been worth watching either.  One needs to just see the failed 90's games to film like the Super Mario Brothers or Street Fighter.  Sometimes putting a big budget in the film makes it flashy and interesting.  Films like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil or Alien Versus Predator are an example of how big budget films manage to disguise the fact that they aren't really all that great when you place them beside other films.

The difference between these two medium is how the viewer interacts with them.  In a film, you don't control the character so you would certainly experience a different feeling.  Take for instance if they ever made a Mirror's Edge movie.  First, it would be basically be a parkour/ free running stunt film.  As a viewer, you'll be amazed at how people would pull off those moves.  As a player, you're on a whole different field of experiences.  The palms of my hand and even my feet sweat for every jump, dash and wall run I perform in the game.  It turns the perspective over to you.  Instead of saying, those guys were amazing, you start to say, I am amazing.

So what's the point in turning a game to film?  Is it merely just to satisfy the fanboys?  Maybe away to get more money (cough Warcraft movie!)?  Well, I await the awesome looking Prince of Persia movie this May.

Algiers Sultanate

Let me get back to Europa Universalis 3 (EU3).  I've installed the 2 expansions - Napoleon's Ambition and In Nomine and learned that my old saved games didn't work anymore.  This time, I wanted to go back and try the Muslim conquest but I'll do it at an easier difficulty.  I chose the Algiers this time as Morocco was a hot zone.  The Castillians would easily take Granada and move downward.

The expansions add a lot more depth in the game as you have a lot more decisions and you now can enact policies that affects your nation or just a province.  You can also receive missions (like in the newer Total War series) and receive rewards if you successfully complete it.  Each nation now starts at a different technology age and there are more tech levels to research.  Another new thing in EU3 with expansions is that you can move the government sliders faster depending on the size of your nation and your government type. My nation could move policy sliders every 10 years.

I'm starting to like this game a lot with the expansions (and at easy difficulty).  Algiers is bordered to the west by Morocco and to the east by Tunisia.  To the north is the Barbary Coast and a lot of water and to the south is unexplored territory.  I started the earliest you can start in - the start of the 15th century.  I was planning for a warfare takeover at first.  I tried allying with Morocco to take on Tunisia but that didn't work.  I managed to ally myself with Tripoli - the neighbor of Tunisia. 

Morocco actually declared war with me along with Tunisia and Tripoli didn't help.  My armies managed to keep the Moroccans at bay until the Christian nations started attacking Morocco.  Morocco soon decided that it was going to lose a 2 front war so it ended with a truce.  I decided to build up my army to extreme levels.  Tunisia had a  pathetic army which I could crush and once the truce was over I declared war on them (which now Tripoli came to my aid and Morocco to theirs).  I crushed Tunisia in less than a year and quickly annexed them up.  Morocco was losing to Portugal and Castille so I managed to gobble up some of their provinces.  In the end, I gained more land with Tunisia and managed to free the nation of Fez from Morroco.  Fez soon became my ally and buffer plate against the Christians and Morocco.  I set my sights now on Tripoli.  After threatening them several times, I went to war and crushed their army quickly.  They surrendered and I took them as my vassal.

Now in the west, Castille was fighting against England (who took over Aragon), Morocco and Fez.  I went to the aid of Fez only to get beaten back and my navies sunk.  I didn't lose any territory but I was forced to pay 108 ducats for peace.  Later on - there was a massive revolt in Castille, I funded some Nationalist rebels to aid in the disruption.  Granada (a former Muslim nation now Christian and eventually became Protestant after a crusade against them) broke free from the Castillian revolts.

Morocco and Fez started having rebels too which led to the people joining my nation.  My nation was now not a war machine but a trade empire.  I was forced to focus my government on trade as I couldn't expand as fast.  Morocco managed to annex Fez back and return to near its original states.  Around 1515, I noticed that France - probably the world power get shattered with revolts.  I think two different factions broke out in revolt along with several peasant armies leaving the former world power a mere shadow of itself.  Algiers ranks 19th in the world though now I think that the strongest military power is the English who have nearly united Britain and hold the former lands of Aragon.

I have no idea why I've written so much on such a complicated niche game but I might continue to do so cause this game is starting to get fun.

Team Fortress Tactics

 I've only just begun playing Team Fortress 2 recently.  I started a day after
grabbing it from the Orange Box sale a few days before the new year.  I've been
glued to the game ever since.  It's amazing how the game still holds up till
today and the community of players is still going strong.

TF2 still receives a lot of updates and they're free.  Left 4 Dead 2 might have
paid DLC on the PC probably because L4D is the only valve multiplayer game
successful over in console and they don't want to hurt their console players.

For new players, a few good TF2 sites would really help in playing the game.  TF2
is more of tactics and positioning than being a good shot.  The game focuses more
on working together and using each individual's class strength.

I recommend going to TF2wiki.net for getting the basics and strategies of the
game down.

For people who just like videos - go over to christianmalazarte's youtube TF2 Tactics page.

Serious Bounty Sale

It's the first sale weekend of the year!  Steam has Serious Sam HD on sale at 66% off.  I remember playing the original Serious Sam co-op on lan with a group of friends.  That was seriously fun.  It's like the first time I ever played something co-op that was fun.  The HD version updates the graphics to 2009 levels (though I think the first game holds up because of the style).

GamersGate still has their Russian Christmas sale (same games from last week).  See their offers page to see the list.

Impulse starts the year right with an awesome sale.  They're probably making up for the weak holiday sale they had.  King's Bounty: The Legend (though grab the GamersGate one, it's cheaper) and King's Bounty: Armored Princess are both at 50% off, I had a review over at my old non gaming blog a year ago and I really liked it.

Majesty 2 and Supreme Commander Gold are 2 other games at half price.  Braid is only $4.99 and for an unknown game - World War 2 - Time of Wrath is at $20.

Time War

There's this indie RTS in development called Archon (not to be confused with the really old Archon chess like game). It's an RTS with the gimmick of manipulating time. They claim that they can go back in time and send units back to beat the enemy. Wars can be fought in slow motion or even paused then fast forwarded to regain your lost time from the present.

It really sounds like an ambitious game and it includes the concept of time paradoxes. Creating these paradoxes destroys units. I have no real idea how this game actually works in multiplayer (and single player) since each player has the ability to go back in time and alter the past. From the way I understand it, it might play as something like a real time play by email game. Players send their orders in real time and the computer decides what happens thus the player can go back and undo the past moves while the computer actually computes the the main timeline and the flow of the game. Don't take my word for it, I'm merely speculating on how the game works.

Currently, the game is still in it's alpha state and it hopes to release maybe Jan 1 of 2011. If anyone is interested, they are pre-selling the game which grants access to the alpha build. I'm planning to hop on maybe around March or April once they are near their multiplayer testing phase. Go check out their site over at - http://www.achrongame.com/index.html

Here's a demo video of the game.

Europa Universalis Takeover Plan

Well, playing the Scottish (and reading the manual later on) made me learn that reducing religious tolerance doesn't make your country convert to another religion. It's pretty hard to change your religion and coming from a Catholic nation - the only religion available are Protestant and Reformed once they become available. The cost in changing the state nation is pretty high.

So I decided to pick one of the super power of this time - Portugal. I'm aiming to be a trade leader at the start and start colonizing lands later on. The mechanics of the game doesn't make conquest easy. Controlling a territory is not the same as owning it unlike in the Total War series where you need but take the city and it's yours. The territory can only be yours once peace settles and the enemy country agrees to let you own it. There's also attrition, manpower and war exhaustion which makes making a horde of troops pretty tough. I don't even think trying to take over Europe is possible. Other nations don't like a nation going and annexing territories all the time.

Another thing, since the battles are determined by the computer and not by your control, the game requires more strategic thinking than the tactical combat needed in Total War. Unit morale plays a big role in the fights and not just sheer troop number.

So the only way to be a world power is to avoid the old world and take over the new world. Truthfully, I don't really enjoy this game since I don't get the satisfaction of taking over countries. I actually like Hearts of Iron 2 better with the constant war. I'll try putting in the other expansions and see how the game changes. My inner megalomaniac wants to take over the world.

So now as Portugal, I've generated more money and researched more technology in a couple of decades than playing as Scotland or Morroco. I've been into a war with Brittany but that ended in a stalemate - I had a super power navy with almost no army and he had a decent army but with a navy that would not match mine. I managed to take his capital for a few days but he then brought the bulk of his forces to retake it.

Europa Universalis 3

I grabbed this strategy game - Europa Universalis 3 Complete (which doesn't include the newest expansion) last time it had a sale. I wanted to try this game out since it was all praises in Out of Eight. I've tried Hearts of Iron 2 but never really played much of it so I thought that this was going to be the same.

I tried several nations - Castille was a pretty good nation to start as. I'm guessing that the major powers in this time would be France, Castille and Portugal. Yet I wanted something different, I tried something harder - the Morrocans (on northern Africa just south of the Iberian peninsula). I got into several wars with Castille with the final one crushing my nation into non-existence.

I decided to try something else - Scotland. My ultimate goal was to have the United Kingdom under Scottish rule. Also, there were these religion sliders where you could tweak you religious tolerance - I tweaked it to super negative on Roman Catholic and super positive for paganism. It didn't really change my nation - only made my people angry. A funny thing later happened. You see, there's the papal elections - the Holy See where one country can be appointed to it. My country who has probably the worst Catholic tolerance in the Christian nations (and is trying to practice druidism) was voted to the Holy See. I'm barely half a century in the game (it's 1490 in my game now). I hope to achieve my goal (or be crushed by superior English forces). This isn't a game I feel that comfortable with – coming from the Total War and Civilization games but I hope I might get attached to it somehow.

2010 - Starts with a Bang

A lot of 2009 games were pushed down to the 1st quarter of 2010.  On consoles, there's God of War 3 which is sure to be a great hit on the PS3.

We also have exciting new sequels - Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2 before the end of March.  EA also has announced a new Medal of Honor - in modern times (Modern Medal of Honor?).  The Chaos Rising expansion for Dawn of War is another game I'm looking forward to this quarter.

I've went and grabbed the Orange Box and Burnout over in Steam so it looks like I won't be grabbing the other games in my wishlist.

IGF awards also occurs in this quarter - a great time to see upcomming indie games.  Archon, a RTS game, caught my attention with it's interesting time travel gimmick.  I have no idea how this will turn out.  I can't wait for this new year of gaming!